When conservative Congressman Todd Akin a few months back suggested that liberalism was a “hatred of God,” I postulated that given the overwhelming support for liberal and progressive values in the Judeo-Christian Bible, perhaps he had never bothered to actually read the Bible. With Rick Santorum’s recent comment that Obama’s agenda is “Some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible. A different theology,” I am now beginning to wonder if Santorum, Akin, and other conservatives are just reading a different Bible entirely than the one I read.

ecause here’s the thing: while you can — if you really work hard to do it — find verses here and there supporting a more conservative political point of view on certain specific issues, there is simply no way to read the Bible I read and not come to the conclusion that it is overwhelmingly supportive of helping the poor, showing mercy to the weak, refraining from judging, treating others as you would treat yourself, calling on the wealthy to give their money to the poor, and all kinds of other liberal, lefty, progressive values. You would have to ignore a great deal of Genesis and Exodus, with their talk of being our brother’s keeper and bringing justice to the poor, oppressed slaves in Egypt; you would have to skip over a great many of the verses of Psalms with its poetry about justice and mercy for the poor and the widow; you would have to avoid the books of the Prophets almost entirely since so much of what they are angry about is the Israelite society’s mistreatment of poor people and immigrants in their midst. Then there is the New Testament, where between St. Paul, the relatives of Jesus, and the big guy himself, there are so many verses on these subjects that it is virtually impossible to ignore them.

In fact, as I noted in my piece about Todd Akin, Jesus talks about mercy to those in trouble in 24 verses of the Gospels, tells people not to judge in 34 verses, … Read More

The term “people of faith” generally includes all people who believe in God based on faith. The largest portion of these people of faith belong to one of the three Abrahamic “revealed” religions. The big three Abrahamic “revealed” religions are Judaism and its two offshoots of Christianity and Islam.

All three are based on belief in the ancient Hebrew Abraham. They teach that Abraham had a special covenant with God and that Abraham is the patriarch of their particular “revealed” Abrahamic religion.

The Jews claim God revealed his will in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament while Christians claim God’s will is revealed in both the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and in the New Testament. Muslims believe God revealed his will in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament as well as in the New Testament and that he gave his final revelation in the Koran. Hence, all three are “revealed” religions, that is they all claim to have their religion based on a revelation from God.

The reason people who believe in Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all considered to be people of faith is because there is no logical way for them to believe their scriptures are divine revelations. The American founder and Deist Thomas Paine clarified this fact in his monumental book on God, Deism, religion, etc., The Age of Reason, The Complete Edition (for Kindle version click here). Paine writes, “Revelation, when applied to religion, means something communicated immediately from God to man.

“No one will deny or dispute the power of the Almighty to make such a communication, if he pleases. But admitting, for the sake of a case, that something has been revealed to a certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person only. … Read More

When the bishops try to impose their own religious rules on the public

During the last few weeks, we have seen an outrageous attempt to impose sharia law on the US government and the American public.

Not Muslim sharia; it is Roman Catholic “sharia” about contraception that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has been trying to impose on Americans of all faiths and beliefs who happen to work at a Catholic-sponsored hospital or university.

Have Muslims been campaigning to impose sharia law on US courts? NO! — Of the many faces of Islam in America, the face of the future — open in wonder and questioning — is the one our society could be, should be, encouraging.

This one:

Yet the same voices —- Fox News, various candidates for President — that have bitterly attacked non-existent attempts by American Muslims to impose sharia on the public have not criticized this actual real-life attempt at doing so by the bishops. Indeed, many of these same voices have supported the bishops.

The bishops warned about “religious oppression” even when the Catholic Hospital Association celebrated the arrangement that the Obama Administration worked out, making sure that health insurance companies will pay for free contraception without involving the Catholic-sponsored employers who might object.

The only threat to religious freedom was the attempt by the bishops to deny religious freedom to the employees of those institutions — both Catholic and Other — whose religious consciences are totally at peace with the use of contraception. … Read More